WB5 and hardware OVERLAYS :@

from Stardock Forums
ok i've searched this forum and found many users complaining about their media apps havin probs with displaying video after installing WB5.

unfortunately i'm one of them too. some even suggest that its a problem with these apps (VLC, PowerDVD and WinDVD) -- and some say its a prob with WB5, honestly i dont know what to believe.

from what i know and from what i heard: the above media apps uses almost 90% of the video features present on ur video card. so i think i'm able to call them professional video players. But thats not the case with windows media player, and i prefer VLC or WinDVD over WMP for tons of reasons i dont want to mention here.

i paid good money for WB5 and i think i deserve some explanation and posibly a fix/workaround for this from stardock.. i'm not pointing fingers at anyone, all i want is, for this to work.



ps. i know its a prob with hardware accellerated overlays
7,125 views 21 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
it would help if you told us more information about your system itself. i know i had similar issues until a fix was released in the (at the time) latest version of the radeon catalyst drivers. the more information you give us, the better. even if you think it's unnecessary and redundant it will help us rule out basic issues.
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

Hi Gripp, I know what you mean.  I posted in another thread about my video problems.  It seems to affect some and not others.  Some of my video players work fine (MS Player Ver 6 and 10 and VLC) and others don't (Powerdvd Ver5).  Reinstalls don't fix it either.  I also have at least one program that does not open now (Corel Draw Suite 9) so I am beginning to regret my purchase.  Heck the only program I really wanted was Objectdock and it is free. 


My system is an Athlon 3200+, 2Gig Ram, Windows XP Pro, latest Radeon Catalyst drivers (as of Feb 1), WindowBlinds 5.


 

Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

WB5 on my machine is a bit temperamental and I had the same problems with PowerDVD, no video. Haven't tried PDVD on new system but WMP10 seems to play fine so far.


Just to give a comment to cajunjunky's Corel probelm. With WB5 and Corel Draw 8 I had problems opening them too. Sometimes the app would open and then hang on some actions ( like color pick) sometimes it would not open at all. I finally tracked it down to scroll-bar painting. Once the scrollbar painting was disabled for Corel app in WB the app seemed to work fine. T'was a crappy solution but a solution no less. To note, I'm using Corel 12 now and it has no problems with WB5 scrollbars or otherwise. Using XP Pro SP2.

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
thanks guys..

i use the Vista glass theme that comes with Windows X's Vista Trans. Pack 3.0.

I have a P4-E 3.0Ghz prescott
Asus P4C800 Deluxe (875P)
1.5GB DDR400 in dual channel (2x 512 + 2x 256)
Asus 6800 GT 256MB running on WHQL 81.98 Drivers

hope this gets sorted out
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top

The problem appears to be a bug either in the apps or more likely the OS where overlays get the wrong colour key set when anything per pixel is on screen.  It doesn't matter if its WB5 per pixel skins, Object Dock, WinAmp with a per pixel skin etc.

The fact that it doesn't happen with Windows Media Player suggests it either has a workaround for this, or only certain overlay formats have the problem.

We are looking into it to see if there is any way we can work around this issue, but it may well require Microsoft to fix the OS.

Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
hmm...

well thanks...

small question...is there a way to prioritize overlays? like which one should be primary?
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Most graphics cards only support 1 overlay surface in total.  A few cards (some 3DLabs ones in particular) support more.

Our investigations with mplayer & VLC have shown its a combination of a design flaw in those apps overlay init code and an OS oddity.  I cannot comment on if thats the same problem that you are having with PowerDVD & WinDVD as PowerDVD worked fine here in testing.

We have a workaround for the mplayer & VLC issue in testing and it might resolve problems you have with PowerDVD & WinDVD too.

Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top

So what is the workaround?  I would like to try it for Powerdvd....the other media players work fine for me.

Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top

The next beta build of WB released should contain this workaround.

Testing has shown it does help WinDVD, so its possible PowerDVD will also be fixed.  I think its reasonable to assume now that Microsoft did release a sample once with this error in it and thats why most of the overlay using apps have this issue.  I guess the media player developers noticed it would break & fixed it in their app.

Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
ok then...so...i'm waiting for this beta build thanks again.
Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top

Now that my desktop computer is up again (power supply went bad) I was able to do some more testing.  It seems that the culprit it not windowblinds but instead ObjectDock.  If OD is closed Powerdvd works fine but when I open OD, Powerdvd craps out again. 


Although this is the wrong forum thread, I will ask anyway.  Is there much difference between the free OD and the OD+?  I am willing to purchase OD+ if it will fix this problem but it is not worth it to me if it does not help.

Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top
The beta is in OD? object dock? i'm not getting this. whaa...?

by the way, i found a workaround my self. if you open windows media player before anything and play a video on it, then stop it and keep it minimized, then open video in VLC, video works fine.

so again back to the beta -- what do i have to do now? download object dock?
Reply #14 from WinCustomize Forums Top
'OD'....Object Desktop....not 'Object Dock'....
Reply #15 from Stardock Forums Top
so i have only purchased windowblinds...does this mean now i have to purchase ObjectDesktop too..?
Reply #16 from WinCustomize Forums Top

No...you need to download/install Stardock Central to gain access to betas, etc of Windowblinds....

Reply #17 from WinCustomize Forums Top
If you have SDC (Stardock Central) look in there. Make sure 'show pre release' is checked.
Reply #20 from Stardock Forums Top
woooooooooooooooo ur beta works !!!
Reply #21 from WinCustomize Forums Top

thanks guys

NP....